Please suggest a day trip from Alajuela!
 

We have one day in Alajuela (really, just a half day) before we leave for Manuel Antonio that night. We have a private driver, so leaving in the evening wouldn't be bad. Since we are spending the majority of our trip in MA, we would love to see a volcano... or something :)
We are staying at Los Volcanes.
Thanks!

A travel agent just suggested a half/day trip to Irazu for $36 pp- thoughts?

Volcan Poas or Zoo Ave (bird zoo) are both good short trips.

I found Poas more interesting than Irazu and it has a great interpretive centre.

We stayed at Los Volcanes as well and it was one of their drivers who took us to both places.

I definitely agree that Poas is more interesting. You could spend a few hours seeing Doka coffee plantation, Poas volcano and La Paz waterfall gardens before heading out to MA. This would be my personal choice of things to do.

Zoo Ave is a good place to see some of the birds of Costa Rica and is right there is very close to where you will be staying if you don't want to go too far.

Further south on the other side of San Jose is Irazu as you know. You could combine that with Lankester gardens and the Basilica in Cartago.

From what y'all have said and from what I have read, I think we would enjoy Poas more than Irazu.
But, I'm running into problems finding a tour that doesn't last 11 hours.
Suzie2- I really like your rec. on seeing the coffee plantation, waterfalls, and volcano- BUT how do I arrange this? Is there a website besides vacationcity.com that lists the different tours? We need to be back at our hotel in Alajuela by 3:30 or so, so we are not driving to MA in the total dark. (We do not mind getting up early)
Thanks for your help!

The people at Los Volcanes arranged our tours - a private driver and car who went at our speed. They might do the same for you.

Ah Heather- that sounds perfect! I went through a travel agent to book Los Volcanes. I will try and contact them tomorrow.

Since you have a private driver - I would think he could take you to Poas, La Paz and Doka.

But you have probably already asked him.

Ah, dfarmer- no, I had not thought about that! :) So, you think we should ask him to take us there before he takes us to MA?

Yes I do.

Not knowing who you hired or how you hired your driver, I can't say for sure.

But most of the drivers do transfers plus day trips, pretty much whatever is needed. So I would certainly ask him. Just let him know what you are interested in, of course it will cost a little more than your transfer but I wouldn't think much. He will know how much time to allow. And if he cannot do it, it may be that he will know someone else. And if not - you know someone here will.

For instance this year we used Wady Tours for transfers to and from the airport. Plus we hired one of their drivers for a full day for $100 I believe + tip + we paid for his lunch. On this day we pretty much planned it the way we wanted and left the driving to Carlos. Beautiful day!